WHY SMOKERS NEED TO BE HEARD IN THE FIGHT AGAINST TOBACCO
This article is not about the rights of smokers to self-destruct versus the rights of non-smokers to a smoke- free environment,relax .Smoking kills! We’ve known that for at least 50 years — and yet millions still smoke, and thousands more pick up the habit every year. Why? Their stories involve strong addictions, passionate defiance — and billions spent to make people act against their own best interest. Smokers smoke and take in many other nasty sorts of consumables because we get immediate rewards from them. Despite knowing how bad it is for them and hating the smell, it gives them more immediate benefits than the negatives.
I’m sure you've come across a smoker who told you they known very healthy people who’ve died young and know plenty of smokers who are in their 80s and 90s. Although the number of people who smoke is on the decline, there are still millions of people around the world who smoke despite the obvious health risks. People know the dangers of smoking but still continue to smoke,this is a fact . I knew the dangers of smoking but I still smoked for 16 years . While it is clear that people smoke because of the nicotine, it is not nicotine that kills them,but the tar from the cigarette.
I have spoken to hundreds of smokers.If you asked any smoker you know if they would embrace a product that would give them the same satisfaction but with lesser harm,what do you think the answer would be?
When you drive smoking underground by increasing taxes, the smoker does not, but simply buys cheaper, less quality cigarettes with heavier tar.When you increase cigarette prices,the smoker keeps evolving .I have witnessed this first hand, this are not theories I got from a book. Smokers are consuming less quality cigarettes that are doing even more damage to their bodies. This is accelerating death rates from smoking!
Smokers should be brought to the table in the fight against smoking,after all , this is about them . It’s their lives at stake here .If the number of smokers should be reduced, then the ethically-correct way to go about it is to offer a better solution: allow unhindered access to an unrestricted range of highly-attractive low-risk alternatives.
As it has proven impossible to reduce smoking prevalence below about 20% worldwide, perhaps if the genuine goal is to reduce their numbers then a proven solution could be employed instead of the fantasy games currently popular, which only create immoral and unethical pressures on smokers and waste massive amounts of taxpayers’ money. The only proven solution is tobacco harm reduction, the voluntary substitution of low-risk products for cigarettes by the consumer.
